Mailboxes are known in the art. In rural and suburban environments mailboxes by the side of the street are a common phenomenon. Street side mailboxes serve two important and primary purposes, the first of which is to receive mail and other deliveries, to include newspapers, magazines, and like, and the second of which is to provide a deposit point for outgoing mail and parcels for pick up by the letter carrier as he or she makes their rounds.
Although federal lairs exist that punish the theft of mail, problems with theft of mail, particularly financial documents such as social security, retirement, and pension checks, as well as financial statements to include bank documents and credit cards, exist. Suburban and rural mailboxes are also subject to vandalism and destruction, to include the placement of explosive devices inside mailboxes by those bent on acts of mischief and vandalism.
A number of approaches have been taken in the attempt to provide a secure and accessible mailbox which also preventing the theft of mail and other deliveries held inside the mailbox. One of these mailboxes is disclosed in the patent to Bern. U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,626, disclosing a security mailbox for the storage of mail in a secure lower portion of a housing, the mailbox having a pivoting mail shelf to divide the housing into upper and lower compartments with the mail shelf being moved from a substantially horizontal rest position to a downwardly inclined main dump position. In Berry, however, the mailbox housing has only a single compartment defined therein, into which not only mail, but other objects, such as, for example, explosive devices for the purposes of vandalism, can be inserted into the mailbox.
Similarly, the secured mailbox of Fitzgerald et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,999, discloses a mailbox or receptacle for mail which has two compartments in communication with each other, an unsecured upper compartment and a locked lower compartment with a movable partition between the two compartments. In Fitzgerald et al., an opening in the partition accesses a chute extending downwardly from the upper compartment into the lower compartment, the chute being set at an angle which allows mail and papers to pass from the upper to the lower compartment.
The patent to Overstreet. U.S. Pat. No. 5.071,063, is similar to the patents to Berry and Fitzgerald in that it discloses a housing having a mail delivery door through which mail is placed into the housing and passed downwardly into the bottom of the housing. However, Overstreet has only a single, or common compartment, defined in the housing of the mailbox.
Another approach taken to deal with the problem of protecting mail is shown in the patents to Bruhns, U.S. Pat. No. 3,401,875, Morgan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,735,919, and Morgan, U.S. Pat. 3,758,027. In each of these three patents a mailbox having upper and lower compartments is disclosed, where a trap door mechanism separates the upper compartment from the lower compartment so that once mail is placed into the upper compartment and the actuating mechanism is operated by the closing of the mail delivery door or other means, a trap door opens, and the mail passes into a lower compartment. However, and like the mailboxes of Berry, Fitzgerald et al., and Overstreet, once a package or other delivery is placed in the mailbox, to include unauthorized deliveries placed in the mailbox, the opening of the trap door passes the articles into the lower compartment. Also, and due to the nature of their construction, the mailboxes to Bruhns and Morgan are relatively complicated in nature, having a number of mechanical parts interlinked and operated upon opening of the mailbox door or through the use of an actuating mechanism, the mechanisms thus being subject to wear.
None of the prior art known to the inventor discloses or illustrates a locking mailbox having two separate compartments, a secured and enclosed lower compartment for receiving mail and other authorized deliveries, and a separate top compartment to hold outgoing mail and parcels which is not dependent on a spring lock or other mechanism to hold the outgoing mail in position, and which does not permit access to the lower compartment after outgoing mail is picked up for delivery. Thus, the need exists for an improved and simple locking mailbox which is adapted to house mail and authorized deliveries in a secure, locked, weather and theft resistant enclosure sized large enough to allow mail to accumulate over a period of time, and which also provides a simple device for holding outgoing mail which does not depend on any operating mechanism nor provide access to the secured and enclosed compartment holding the delivered mail.